Thread by @duckie_han

1/x The Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) & Why It Matters: A thread

The FVM looks to be a game-changer for @Filecoin.
It is expected to go live in 1H 2023.
This introduces programmability and EVM-compatible smart contracts to Filecoin.

Let's dive into what this means ⤵️

2/x Note about what I'll share today

Like usual, I will try to provide a mental model to understand the FVM and tools to DYOR.

Disclaimer: I work on Ecosystem Growth at Filecoin, and these are my personal views

3/x How the FVM fits into the overall Vision of Filecoin

If you followed my previous tweets, you would have seen the vision & ambition of Filecoin as below.

The FVM brings programmable applications to Filecoin and it has always been on the roadmap.

4/x Layer 0 to Layer 1

Filecoin today is a decentralized storage network with 18 EiB capacity (L0).
With Storage at the base, FVM enables dapps to build natively onto Filecoin, making Filecoin the ONLY storage blockchain with smart contracts sharing the same consensus (L1).

5/x Key points about the FVM technical design

Super impt: The FVM will be EVM compatible. This allows devs to use battle-tested Eth smart contracts and usual tooling that they’re familiar on Filecoin.
Also, multiple VMs can be deployed - allowing long-term scalability.

6/x Mental Model: How to interpret the impact of FVM

1. It makes Filecoin economy & its native storage services even better (let’s call this "Super Filecoin")
2. It grows the pie - new use cases of Filecoin as dapps can build natively on a chain with verifiable storage as L0

7/x "Super Filecoin" - because there is now Defi

One of the painpoints for growth now in Filecoin economy is collateral & financing for Storage Providers.
Token holders also look for more ways to stake / lend Filecoin.
To-date, there is $0.5-1Bn in FIL locked as collateral.

8/x "Super Filecoin" - Defi cont'd

FVM allows capital bridging, liquid staking etc. to feed this ready economy.

Why this matters - This is not Defi for Defi's sake, or even Defi to replicate financial services. It’s Defi to power Open Services.

9/x Super Filecoin cont’d

Now, with Defi AND Storage primitives in place, you can make Filecoin work even better.

E.g:
- Perpetual Storage using auto-renewal of deals (

https://twitter.com/jnthnvctr/status/1545401176392437762?s=20&t=9bOwWCUKnQs72KjxHM6SLA

)
- Repairing of sectors, conditional data access
… and many more!

10/x Market opp is kinda huge

- Cloud Storage+Computing is currently a 406B market
- Combined market cap of the top cloud companies is several trillion dollars

Only with smart contracts, are we able to harness the full potential of Web3 for the provision of storage & compute

11/x New Use Cases

Filecoin will be different from other L1s, because it starts with verifiable storage & treats Data as the fundamental unit by which Value is exchanged.
Being EVM-compatible, some may say it’s like Ethereum *with* storage capabilities.

12/x New Use Cases cont'd

Similar use cases (Defi, NFTs, Games) as other L1s may appear on Filecoin, but we expect developers to take novel approaches as the Web3 space searches for the next “killer use case” that takes us even more mainstream.

13/x Here's some: A mindmap to show some cool use cases

14/x Poll for next Deep Dive

And, now, help me find out what would be most useful.

Which use case would you like us to talk about in the next tweet thread?

15/15 and final.

- Track progress of the FVM: github.com/filecoin-proje…
- Be an Early Builder: fvm.filecoin.io
- Reach out if you have a cool idea

Credits:
Thank you to my smart friends @jnthnvctr + Nathaniel Kok for their help in this thread!

End.